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Mailbag

To The Editor:
This is a copy of the letter I wrote to John Riedl (MCS Interim Superintendent) at jriedl@margaretvillecs.org and Colin Clark (MCS Principal) at cclark@margaretvillecs.org. It is a demand that they stop donkey basketball at Margaretville to be played on April 9 by the MCS Honor Society.
Dear Sirs;
I learned that the MCS Honor Society has planned a donkey basketball fundraiser for April 9. Because this activity is abusive to the animal participants as well as potentially dangerous for the human participants, schools across the country have already banned it.

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To The Editor:
The following is a quote from the application for the N.Y. Rising-Bull Run Project sent from the Margaretville village office to Albany. It is the section to justify the project.
“The project’s target area includes the entirety of the Village of Margaretville and will benefit all residents of the village through reduced risk of flooding.

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To The Editor:
Is there a strange, frightening, and compelling analogy between Neville Chamberlain negotiating with Hitler in 1939 and the arguably failed presidency of Barack Obama (and Mr. Kerry) in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat to the world? They both claimed that they have achieved “peace in our time.”

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To The Editor:
My neighbor, Mary Ann Todd, and I both had the same experience recently, frozen water! I contacted Jerry Hamil, “The Water Guy”, and he and Ray Kohl came out about 10:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 23. Using the hot water method, they had it running by 12:30 p.m.
Mary Ann asked me the following Wednesday who I had that thawed my water out and the next day I saw Jerry Hamil’s vehicle by her house.
I called her later to ask how she made out and she was so excited and happy to tell me she had water again after being without water for three days.

To The Editor:
The Roxbury Central School District (RSCD) is going to the voters again in May for approval on the repair project. In conjunction with last week’s “Mailbag” by Gregory, I have to say, it is time for reality.
The first vote was in favor. However, as a result of wording issues, a second vote was required. This was defeated by the taxpayers. Now, the voters will be asked again to vote in May on a scaled-down version, which is $750,000 less than the original plan.

To the Editor:
There will be no challenges in the upcoming Margaretville election, only the incumbents names will appear on the ballot. The March 18 election gives the village residents the opportunity to issue a “Report Card” on their sense of economic prog­ress and flood mitigation in the village. Since there are no challengers to the incumbents, voters have two options. You can either vote for the incumbent or make a comment in the write-in box.

To The Editor:
I see that the vote is on the docket again to spend millions to prop up the aging Roxbury Central School building. It’s clear that it’s a beloved and central institution in the small town of Roxbury.
I have to challenge the idea that we should pour that much money into a school where soon there will only by 350 students (rough number). That’s over and above the $10 million we spend on the school budget each year. Again a rough number but that works out to $28,571 per student, a staggering sum.

To The Editor:
In response to the recent article about the buyout program, I would like to point out here that if the city’s review process is too complex for the county to understand, then it is the county that can’t work with the city, not the other way around. The county, after all, has the option of asking for help from someone who does understand.

To The Editor:
Last week’s article, “Village Rips DEP Buyout Plans”, deserves your attention. The article never talks about the real issue, but it is the story of the Village of Margaretville losing a financial power struggle with the community. The article concentrates on convincing the pub­lic a serious mistake has been made. It is the story about the village losing control of who can and cannot participate in a buyout.

To The Editor:
The article in the February 4 issue about the Margaretville Village Board’s travails with DEP may present the need to confront a larger issue. Has the time come to end the Watershed MOA and Filtration Avoidance Waiver that goes with it? Both were signed in 1998. Back then, there were concerns that filtration on the scale New York City would need could be unworkable. Costs were uncertain, with estimates as high as $11 billion. This was a time when city finances were in dreadful condition, so the city couldn’t borrow, bond, or otherwise fund such a project. The agreement as signed offered financial benefits to both a beleaguered city and the watershed towns that host the water consumed by New York City.
Now, the city is thriving and its finances are sound.